Simulating the flow field around an aircraft transporting a store, such as a weapon, is important for the design of aircraft. Increasingly, modern aircraft transport their store internally within a closed bay. The bay is opened to deploy the store over a target. As the bay is opened, the flow field around the aircraft affects the deployment of the store, and may become unsteady around the open bay. Typically, the flow field is simulated to determine the effect of deployment of the store on the aircraft.
Simulating the flow field around an aircraft, however, has posed challenges to aircraft designers. Wind tunnels may be used to simulate a flow field. Scale models of the aircraft are placed in a wind tunnel, and measurements of the flow field created in the wind tunnel are taken. The results from wind tunnel simulations, however, are often distorted since the size and mass of the scale model are different from that of the actual aircraft. Additionally, wind tunnel simulation is typically expensive. Computational simulations may also be used to determine the flow field. Calculating the flow field around an aircraft, especially an unsteady flow field, however, requires a large amount of computing power and time. Consequently, simulating the flow field around an aircraft has posed challenges to aircraft designers.